OSTI's activities include extensive use of SGML: ". . .One of these initiatives, for example, is the Department-wide effort to implement standards which will allow for the full-text electronic exchange of scientific and technical documents. OSTI also serves as the central point for the collection and sharing of scientific and technical information management activities of interest to DOE and its customers."

"The initiative to implement standards for the electronic exchange of scientific and technical information was promulgated within the Department of Energy (DOE) in August 1991 by the Office of Information Resources Management (IRM) Policy, Plans, and Oversight, when they announced an initiative to achieve electronic exchange of scientific and technical information (STI) within the Department. At that time the Department adopted the International Standards Organization (ISO) 8879, Information processing - Text and office systems - Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML), as defined in the Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) Publication 152, as the DOE standard. The DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI), which coordinates STI management within the Department, was given responsibility to manage the transition." [from the Reference Guide for the Department of Energy Technical Report Document Type Definition (DTD)]

Earlier information: A large number of IRS documents are available in SGML format in the IRS-SGML Library on the FedWorld Information Network. The SGML documents are complete with DTD. The IRS-SGML Library had some 90 documents as of April 11, 1995, and the list is said to be "updated each morning". The documents are encapsulated in self-extracting binary files (".EXE" MS-DOS compressed files). The IRS was one of the earliest adopters of SGML.

About [IRS-SGML Library] SGML Formatted Files - "SGML is a federal (FIPS 152) and international (ISO 8879) standard for identifying the structure and content of documents. SGML files are ASCII text files that contain element identifiers similar to the tags used in an HTML file. An SGML application also contains a Document Type Definition (DTD) file that defines the document structure and content..."

The National Library of Medicine (NLM) in Bethesda, Maryland, together with the William H. Welch Medical Library of Johns Hopkins University, has been building medical databases for full-text information delivery using SGML encoding since about 1988. The Online Reference Works (ORW) project and the more recent HSTAT database are examples of this continuing effort. HSTAT (Health Services/Technology Assessment Text) is "an electronic resource that includes the full text of clinical practice guidelines, quick-reference guides for clinicians, and consumer brochures." One of the NLM's Online Reference Works is Principles of Ambulatory Medicine, the third edition of which was produced from full SGML, using SoftQuad's Author/Editor software package. Frequent updating of information in the Principles of Ambulatory Medicine (PAM) project and associated reference book(s) is expedited through the use of modularized information stored and processed from a database using SGML. Various other CD-ROM publication projects at the NLM also use data encoded in or converted to SGML. For internal use, the NLM has experimented with the PAT search software developed by the University of Waterloo Centre for the NOED (marketed by Open Text Systems).

The US Library of Congress and several research level institutions have been engaged in the collaborative work of the EAD (Encoded Archival Description) initiative for several years. These institutions use the schema documented in the EAD DTD, and currently encode their archival finding aids using the Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML). The documents are viewable on the Internet using SoftQuad Panorama, or in some cases, are translated into HTML on the fly. Archival finding aids are "descriptive bibliography" or "metadata" tools which take the form of inventories, registers, indexes, guides, and similar resources created by museums, libraries, repositories, and other kinds of archives. An announcement was made in January 1998 that the EAD DTD revision, to be released in early 1998, would make the DTD XML compliant.

[August 06, 1997] The Library of Congress announced the availability of its new home page for finding aids using the Encoded Archival Description standard. This page serves as a central location for the Library of Congress' own implementation of EAD and provides access to all finding aids at LC which have been encoded using EAD. Links to reading rooms for the various special collections lead researchers to other online finding aids (primarily ASCII) also available at LC. In addition to listing the EAD finding aids and providing a link to the ftp site for downloading finding aids, stylesheets, and navigators, the page links to instructions on navigating finding aids using Panorama. The finding aid home page replaces the page maintained by American Memory." [from the announcement]

"Archival finding aids are detailed guides to primary source material which provide fuller information than that normally contained within cataloging records. This page provides links to all the archival finding aids at the Library of Congress which have been encoded in SGML using Encoded Archival Description. Other kinds of online finding aids for collections at the Library of Congress, primarily in ASCII format, may be found through web pages for the reading rooms; many more finding aids in paper format are available for use in the reading rooms of a number of special collections divisions. Special collections may also be searched through the Library of Congress catalogs.

[January 30, 1998] Daniel Pitti (Project Director, Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities, University of Virginia) submitted a public post to the Encoded Archival Description List to the effect "that Version 1 of the EAD DTD will be fully compliant with XML." Version 1 of the EAD DTD has been under development for several months, and was recently reviewed for "final" changes in a meeting of October 31-November 2, 1997, by fifteen members of the Encoded Archival Description Working Group of the SAA Committee on Archival Information Exchange. A summary from the preceding post: "The EAD Working Group consists of sixteen individuals representing the United Kingdom, Canada, the Library of Congress, the National Archives, the Research Libraries Group and OCLC, and a number of American academic institutions and one historical society who have been involved for almost three years in the development of EAD. The WG is currently engaged in preparing three documents for final release early this year: version 1.0 of the EAD DTD, the Tag Library, and a set of Application Guidelines."

[August 1997] Report on the EAD DTD by the National Archives of Sweden working group. Among the recommendations: "It would be most valuable if the EAD.DTD is made compatible with the coming XML standard." [archive copy]

"SAE J2008 is a family of standards developed by the membership of the Society of Automotive Engineers in response to the mandate of the Clean Air Act to partition and provide easy access to emission-related automotive service information. At the heart of this SGML standard is a relational Data Model for Automotive Service Information rather than any particular document model. The SGML definition set forth within J2008 provides a hierarchical representation of the Data Model. In addition, this standard provides models for common text constructs such as tables, paragraphs, lists, and procedures which are found within automotive service information. . . It is important to note that the J2008 DTD, unlike most industry DTDs, is copyrighted and cannot be freely distributed." [information from Dianne Kennedy, see below]

CALS Journal summary: "The SAE's J2008 task force is emphasizing the need for a neutral standard for the exchange of information between manufacturers, dealers and independent service shops who use third-party publishers." [Fall 1993]

ArborText on T2008: ATA (trucking): "A task force of The Maintenance Council of the American Trucking Association has been developing the T2008 DTD to serve as a standard for exchanging service information between large truck manufacturers and fleet operators. The T2008 DTD is based on the SAE's J2008 DTD for automobiles and light trucks. ArborText's consultants have reviewed interim releases of the specification and can offer expert assistance. . . The Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) is developing the J2008 DTD for the electronic interchange of service and diagnostic information. ArborText participates on the J2008 Task Force and works with major automotive companies and their suppliers."

J2008 DTD as a model: "As part of the implementation CALS in its equipment engineering and maintenance services, the Canadian Forces is conducting an extensive review of equipment technical documentation requirements and management processes. The review identified a hidden feature of the technical manuals which permitted the elimination of different manual types in favour of a single, all inclusive information model. This information model was formalized in a content orinted SGML DTD that is similar to the J2008 DTD. New technical documentation management processes will use the information model to construct and maintain the officaial, up-to-date equipment technical documentation in a corporate repository." [Capt H.P.C. Wubbolts]

Xyvision XPP support for the SAE J2008 DTD: see the press release: "Maruboshi World-Wide Group Installs Xyvision Production Publisher to Automate Production of Automotive Service Publications"

"SGML MARKUP: EDGAR filings require Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML) data tagging to identify specific information within a file package. SGML tags are words or letters surrounded by right and left angle brackets, for example. There must be no blank spaces within the brackets. Hyphens are used to separate words within tags with more than one word. (Example: ) Note: If required tags or values are missing, the submission will be suspended when filed." [from EDGAR Handbook - CL 11-28-94

However. . ., as Chet Ensign said: "There is an Edgar DTD. However, like HTML, I think it is more a formality than something that is actually used by most of the financial publishing houses to control markup of information. In fact, one of the project directors of the original EDGAR initiative told me that he didn't consider it an SGML application at all." [CTS 980223]

MSR is a German consortium of vehicle manufacturer (DaimlerChrysler, BMW, VW, and Porsche) and suppliers (Bosch, Siemens, Hella and VDO). MSR was founded in 1994. MSR supports the joint development of electronic car control system by enabling process synchronization and proper management of information exchange. MSR has established working groups dedictated to theses special fields. They are called MEDOC, MEGMA and MEPRO.

The MEDOC working group develops standards, methods and tools for information exchange in the engineering process. MEDOC offers unified application profiles (DTDs) for both data and document excange based on the SGML/XML technology. So far MEDOC has defined:

The MSRREP DTD V1.1.0a. When MSR started to use SGML/XML for documenting the MSR activities itself, it became clear that a DTD for arbitrary documents is required. So MSRREP.DTD was developed and can be used to write reports and specifications not yet covered by the other DTDs (e.g. test reports etc.) MSRREP.DTD provides: Generic document structure (chapters, paragraphs etc.), and a detailed model for change management [local archive copy]

The MSRSW DTD V1.1.0c - This DTD is successfully used in projects across companies as well as across different business units in one company while each partner uses different engineering tools and SGML/XML tools. The DTD covers: Data dictionary, Functional specifications, Calibration parameters.

"The definition of an IETM used by DoD in the IETM Specifications is as follows: An IETM is a technical manual, prepared (authored) by a contractor and delivered to the Government or prepared by a Government activity, in a digital form on a suitable medium, by means of an authomated authoring system; designed for electronic-window display to an end user, and possessing the following three characteristics: (1) The format and style of the presented information are optimized for window presentation to assure maximum comprehension; that is, the presentation format is "frame-oriented", not "page-oriented". An IETM can be presented either on a desktop workstation or a Portable Electronic Display Device (PEDD); (2) The elements of technical data constituting the IETM are so interrelated that a user's access to the information he requires is facilitated to the greatest extent possible, and is achievable by a variety of paths; (3) The computer-controlled IETM display device can function interactively (as a result of users request and information input) in providing procedural guidance, navigational directions, and supplemental information; and also in providing assistance in carrying out logistic-support functions supplemental to maintainance." [from NAVYSGML document, cited above]

The Telecommunications Industry Forum (TCIF) is sponsored by the Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions (ATIS) -- a group supported by 2,000 experts from 300 companies which develops consensus answers to industry problems. TCIF was founded in June 1986 to promote understanding and implementation of global standards, guidelines and emerging technologies involving electronic data interchange, electronic commerce and bar coding. "The purpose of the TCIF is to provide a forum for purchasers, manufacturers, and suppliers of telecommunications equipment, products, and services to address issues relating to industry standards associated with the provision, procurement, and use of such equipment, products, and services."

"Information Products Interchange (IPI) is a working committee of the Telecommunications Industry Forum. IPI was established to select standards and guidelines capable of allowing the interchange of a variety of information products for the telecommunications industry . . . Most of the IPI Committee's published work has to do with the Telecommunications Interchange Markup (TIM, an SGML DTD) and the Telecommunications Electronic Document Delivery Package (TEDD)."

"The TIM Document Type Definition (DTD) is a specification for describing the structure of telecommunications and other technical documents, using SGML (Standard Generalized Markup Language). The TIM DTD is based largely on early versions of the DocBook DTD developed by the Davenport Group. TIM extends DocBook by describing additional structural constructs that are often found in techncial documentation. It may now be the best general-purpose (or 'interchange') DTD for technical documents in many industries. Filters and stylesheets are being developed to convert documents from many word processors and desktop-publishing systems into TIM, and to convert TIM documents to DocBook, HTML, word processors, and browsers like Panorama, DynaText, and OLIAS. Besides providing the basic markup for paragraphs, lists tables, safety messages, and other structures used in technical documents, TIM also enables hyperlinking by the author or end user (when supported by the browser), and permits any type of graphic or multimedia object to be included in a document. TIM markup also provides many attributes that can be used to pass meta-information to applications. For instance, sections can be identified as parts, chapters, appendices, prefaces, or any other specific type, so that each can be labeled, formatted, and searched appropriately." [adapted from the ATIS server description]

TIM 1 was approved as a TCIF Guideline in December 1995, and revisions for TIM 2 were begun in December 1996. As described in the TCIF Information Publication TCIF-IPI-97-004 (Issue 1, 10/24/97), several of the DTD changes were aimed at making the TIM 2 specification XML compliant. These included changes to the SGML declaration, removal of inclusion and exclusion exceptions from content models, implementation of external cross-references through URLs, restricting the attribute data types to the XML-valid AttType values ('TokenizedType' -- in particular, NMTOKEN for NAME, NUMBER, and NUTOKEN), and restriction of PCDATA to content models having repeatable 'OR groups'. Thus: "except for changes to adapt to the not-yet-finished XLL linking specification, TIM is already XML-complaint and ready for the next generation of browsers."

Common Telecom DTD - CTD. Note from Henning Moeller on a collateral effort in Europe [TECPAD, EFTI - European Forum for Telecom Industry Information Interchange]: "The CTD is designed for documents in the telecommunications sector. It offers both specific contents-based structures for operation and maintenance documentation (including descriptions, O&M manuals and User Guides) and generic text structures."

TELECOMMUNICATIONS INDUSTRY FORUM via WWW server. Note: the most interesting and informative documents are in /pub/TCIF/ipi_min (in HTML format); most others files are plain text [as of March 30, 1995]. Just follow the link and make the FTP connection to this directory "ipi_min" to access the current HTML files.

[June 23, 1999] "'ECIX - Electronic Component Information Exchange - For Internet and XML-based Component Information Exchange'. The Electronic Component Information Exchange (ECIX) project is dedicated to designing standards for creation, exchange and use of electronic component information, including ASIC cores. The ECIX architecture and standards are extensible, unambiguous, well documented and are maintained under the direction of Si2. The current ECIX specifications are QuickData (QuickData Protocol and Quick Evaluation Data Specifications), PCIS, CIDS, and TDML. A new, XML-based version of PCIS (Version 1.5) was announced in June 1999 at DAC '99 (36th Design Automation Conference).

ECIX is an abbreviation for The Electronic Component Information Exchange Project. The goal of the ECIX project is to define an information interchange standard for the electronic exchange of component data. An interchange standard supporting ECIX and Electronic Data Books (EDBs) is called the Pinnacles Component Information Standard (PCIS). PCIS was conceived by the Pinnacles Group, a consortium of electronic component manufacturers originally consisting of Hitachi America, Intel Corporation, National Semiconductor, Philips Semiconductors, and Texas Instruments. Hewlett Packard and IBM Microelectronics have more recently joined the effort. The Pinnacles Group has now become part of the CFI, as the Electronic Component Information Exchange Project. New members are joining to participate in its further development of the ECIX standard. [adapted]

"The ECIX project decided to develop the application standard using the Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML). SGML, defined by the international standard ISO 8879 in 1986, is a widely accepted and supported standard for the encoding of structured information. SGML defines the range of valid structures for each type of document using a Document Type Definition, or DTD. The ECIX project selected SGML as its document modeling and interchange format for the following reasons: (1) It is vendor and platform independent; (2) It allows data expressed in other industry standards to be included and referenced; (3) It is supported by commercially available tools and services; (4) It ensures the longevity of the electronic component data; (5) It supports the current publishing processes (such as paper and CD-ROM)." [extracted from the White Paper]

[June 23, 1999] "Agile, Si2, Demonstrate Internet-Based Information Standard for Electronic Components. New Capability Provides Real Time Access to Component Information Via the Web." - "Agile Software Corporation, a leading supplier of product change collaboration solutions for the electronic supply chain, and the Silicon Integration Initiative, Inc. (Si2) announced that they will be demonstrating the new capabilities of the Electronic Component Information eXchange (ECIX) standard at the 36th Design Automation Conference (DAC). [said Don Cottrell, VP of Technology at Si2]: 'Standards are the key to delivering on that promise . . . The XML-based ECIX QuickData architecture being demonstrated this week, in combination with Agile Anywhere's open architecture, scalability and security, will provide a powerful platform for harnessing the promise of business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce for the supply chain.' The Electronic Component Information eXchange (ECIX) project is dedicated to designing standards for creation, exchange and use of electronic component information. The ECIX architecture and standards are based on XML, are extensible, unambiguous, well documented and are maintained under the direction of Si2. A number of companies are actively involved with the ECIX program. They include Agile Software, Lucent, Hewlett-Packard, Hitachi, IBM, Intel, Motorola, Philips, and others."

Description of SoftQuad Apex, a Pinnacles Editor, "based on SoftQuad's flagship SGML Editor, Author/Editor. Apex is designed to create and edit Pinnacles documents including support for "source" authoring and "reflections" of source data into the document data."

News clipping from CFI.ORG (http://www.cfi.org/roadmap/manbrief.html): "PINNACLES INITIATIVE OPENS MEMBERSHIP: The Pinnacles Group has opened its membership in an effort to enhance its emerging standard for the electronic exchange of component data. Industry Consultant Rita Glover has been named Director of Business Development to champion this effort. The original five Pinnacles member companies are Hitachi, Intel, National Semiconductor, Philips Semiconductors, and Texas Instruments. Together they have developed a Pinnacles Component Information Standard (PCIS) that allows a single data source to support CD-ROM or Internet delivery, master selection guides, and faxes-on-demand. The group has already experienced great reductions in cost of sales and cycle times. The Pinnacles Group plans to bring its operations under the CFI umbrella. For more information on the Pinnacles initiative, please contact Rita Glover at ritag@doc.com or pinnacles-info@cfi.org."

In May 1997, Silicon Integration Initiative (formerly CFI) and its Electronic Component Information eXchange (ECIX) Program partners "solicited candidate representation formats for waveform data that could be developed into an open EDA industry standard via a Request for Technology process. The goal of defining an open standard for timing and waveform diagram data is to allow component suppliers to supply computer sensible waveforms that describe component behavior in a single format that: 1) gives the customer a choice in what waveform browser or other support tool is used, and 2) allows the component information provider a choice in what waveform editor or other generation tool is used. The standard resulting from this process will be designed for use by ECIX compliant datasheets for representation of timing and waveform diagrams describing component characteristics. It is planned to promote this format as an industry-wide standard first through Si2 and then formally through IEEE/IEC." Efforts continue [1998] under the Waveform Markup Language (WML) Working Group.

XML/SGML compatibility: The review panel determined that for maximum value of any new standard, the representation for Waveform Diagram information should be XML/SGML compliant. This is important in order to maximize the potential for inclusion of Waveform Diagram data as PCIS-encoded information in it's own right at a later date, while not sacrificing any objectives of the near term. Using Waveform Diagram data encoded as specifically 'tagged' information for this domain offers a solution which can be used standalone (i.e., pointed to by a PCIS <model> statement, and the data is accessible as a separate file as it is today), while not sacrificing application performance. At the same time, the use of XML/SGML compliant tags enables the eventual use of directly encoded Waveform Diagram information in the PCIS data stream as an embedded part of a PCIS instance (i.e., embedded as tagged information directly rather than as a separate file)."

[March 08, 1999] The Timing Diagram Markup Language Working Group, formerly known as the 'Waveform Markup Language (WML) Working Group,' has published a new XML-compliant version of TDML. TDML, the Timing Diagram Markup Language, is an industry-backed effort to establish an open, industry standard language for the exchange of interactive timing diagrams. The language is currently being defined by the TDML Working Group of the Silicon Integration Initiative (Si2) organization as part of the Electronic Component Information Exchange (ECIX) project, with members from component vendor and EDA companies. The TDML language allows persons to exchange interactive timing diagram information in a standard form. Having a standard form for the information promotes sharing between different organizations and allows interested parties to develop tools for generating, editing, browsing, etc. the diagrams."

"ATA is the Air Transport Association of America. Founded by a group of 14 airlines meeting in Chicago in 1936, it was the first, and today remains the only trade organization for the principal U.S. The purpose of the Air Transport Association is to support and assist its member carriers by promoting the air transport industry and the safety, cost effectiveness, and technological advancement of its operations; advocating common industry positions before state and local government; conducting designated industry-wide programs, and assuring governmental and public understanding of all aspects of air transport."

"About ATA Specifications: The development of recommended specifications for industry is an important function of trade associations such as ATA. These specifications allow industry participants to achieve major cost savings through the use of common systems and procedures. ATA's role is to facilitate this process by bringing industry members together to reach a consensus that all can support and implement. Thus, ATA specifications ("SPECs") are voluntary industry agreements on accepted means of communicating information, conducting business, performing operations or adhering to accepted practices." [from the ATA WWW server]

"The Railroad Industry Forum (RIF) is a task team of the National Association of Purchasing Managers who were tasked to develop a standard for the exchange of electronic parts catalog data within the North American railroad industry. The RIF members are comprised of major railroads and railroad manufacturers. SoftQuad and Applied Image Technology (AIT) provided the RIF technical expertise during the two-year effort for completion of the standard. Mary McCarthy and Betty Harvey, on behalf of SoftQuad, Inc. developed the EPCES DTD."

"SGML -- Standard Generalized Markup Language -- is utilized by the EPCES to encode text, data and provide for the linking of information elements. SGML, an International Standard, provides an unambiguous syntax for describing whatever a user chooses to identify within a document. An SGML DTD provides the structure that categorizes all information in an SGML encoded document. A tighter DTD structure yields a more reliable information exchange by reducing ambiguity in encoding documents. In the course of defining the EPCES, it was agreed to develop a tightly structured DTD by applying the following guidelines: (1) Focus markup (define data elements) on the content of traditional OEM parts catalogs (as opposed to Industrial Supply catalogs and maintenance manuals); (2) Provide a structure that accommodates a minimal use of text - typical of over 80 percent of the Rail Industry parts catalogs reviewed in Phase II; (3) Pattern the best practices of other Industry DTD's when applicable to the EPCES."

EPCES relationship to ATA 2100 - There is a high level of correlation between ATA Illustrated Parts Catalog (IPC) structures and the RIF sample parts catalogs. However, the ATA IPC standard incorporates more advanced effectivity and revision control information than evidenced by the RIF samples and has richer markup capability due to a more stringent style guide for ATA parts catalogs. Although the ATA IPC DTD was used as a baseline in the development of the RIF-EPC DTD, the RIF-EPC DTD is designed to meet the specific requirements of Rail Industry information. SoftQuad incorporated elements unique to the Rail Industry as well as knowledge from other sources to develop the RIF-EPC DTD. In the area of drawing and image specifications, EPCES closely mirrors ATA 2100."

"Discussion of the EPCES DTD as relating to the Pilot Conversion of an Illustrated Parts Catalog." - by Derek Millar, SoftQuad Inc. Dec. 10, 1996. "An Illustrated Service Parts Catalog has been converted from IBM Bookmaster format (GML coding) to SGML according to the EPCES DTD. The catalog was approximately 500 pages in length and contained 326 unique illustrations. Information about the EPCES standard and related documents was obtained from the Railroad Industry Forum website. This letter discusses areas where the data was not well modeled by the DTD, technical points relating to the DTD which were a source of confusion, and potential guidelines for authors of material which will be maintained and exchanged according to the EPCES standard. The objective of this letter is to provide feedback for the continuing development of the EPCES standard and to serve as a reference for those implementing or planning to implement the standard." [local archive copy]

"The Technical Manual Specifications & Standards (TMSS) and Digital Support Suite (DSS) Project, was established in 1986 to create and maintain Air Force TMSSs. Utilizing Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML), these DSSs contain the tools and templates necessary to tag the digital technical manuals and process them on open systems that comply with version B or later of MIL-PRF-28001, or the DOD JCALS system. The most current TMSSs and their related DSSs are located in the TMSS & DSS Repository. New acquisition programs shall use the DSSs contained in the Performance (MIL-PRF-) specifications repository. Legacy (existing) TO data, created before the release of the new acquisition TMSSs, shall use the legacy DSSs that are also available from this repository. . . If the required Air Force DSS is not listed here, please contact the AF PDSM Program Office for more information. Other useful information such as: helpful hints, hard copy ordering instructions, training, points of contact, other SGML links, Data Item Descriptions, MIL handbooks, and symbology, are also available at this site." [from 'Background']

DSS (Five Part) Definition Digital Support Suite being: "The Document Type Definition (DTD): The DTD is used to create elements, attributes and entities. These are based on the requirements in the subject specification.
The Formatted Output Specification Instance (FOSI):
The FOSI , which utilizes the Datalogics Composer for publishing purposes, is built using the particular
DTD and specification.
The Screen FOSI:
The Screen FOSI is created through Arbortext Adept Edit for WYSIWYG presentation.
The Auxiliary Tag Description (ATD):
The ATD is built in conjunction with the screen FOSI to establish special processing features for
particular elements.
The Tag Description Table (TDT):
The TDT is a rich text format (.rtf) file with a description of each element in the DTD."

Tagging Guidelines - "Guidelines for correctly tagging a document when using standard Air Force DTDs found on this site. [A list of "DO's" and "DONT's"] 'For special characters, use ISO 8879 entities (i.e., math symbols, greek letters, boxes and lines, latin, special publishing, technical, etc.). Visit Icons and Public ISO-Entities for a listing of files containing these entity declarations.' Also Graphics Guidelines

Department of Defense. Standard Practice for Manuals, Technical: General Style and Format Requirements. 154 pages. MIL-STD-38784, July 02, 1995. "Superseding MIL-M-38784C, 2-October-1990." "This standard covers the general style and format requirements for the preparation of standard Technical Manuals (TM) and changes to standard TMs. This includes all technical documents which are assigned a TM identification number and are to be controlled by a TM management information system or are subject to requisition from an inventory control point. In addition to 'paper delivery', this standard provides for electronic delivery of data through use of the Document Type Definitions (DTDs) contained in Appendixes B through E. This general style and format standard supplements the various detail specifications for speciiic types of TMs and related publications and does not alone deliver any technical data. Examples at the rear of this standard are typical and may be adapted to fit the specific equipment or situation being covered. . . Appendices include: B Digital Template for Standard Technical Manuals Document Type Definition; C Supplemental Technical Manuals Document Type Definition Subset; D Technical Manual Supplements Document Type Definition Subset; E Brief Manuals Document Type Definition Subset." Preparing Activity: 16 [Air Force Product Data Systems Modernization Office]; Army Custodian: [TM] USAMC, LOGSA, Acquisition Logistics Center; Navy Custodian: [OS] Naval Surface Warfare Center (NAVSEA, Ordnance Systems)' Air Custodian: [16] Air Force Product Data Systems Modernization Office. PDF Version of 38784. See also the Index. [local archive copy]

DoD Standards Library: DODSSP [The Department of Defense Single Stock Point for Military Specifications, Standards and Related Publications] - "The Department of Defense Single Stock Point was created to centralize the control, distribution, and access to the extensive collection of Military Specifications, Standards, and related standardization documents either prepared by or adopted by the DoD."

"The USAF has been in the SGML investigation and development process for approximately eight years. This involves supporting publishing of technical manuals with paper output, as well as content-tagged data base forms, and interactive electronic presentations.

"The Web site contains the approved as well as the developing SGML templates that the Air Force is requiring in technical manual acquisitions, viz.,pertaining to Technical Manual Specifications & Standards (TMSS), Digital Support Suite (DSS), Air Force Product Data Systems Modernization (PDSM). These templates include DTDs, FOSIs, and various other SGML based templates. The DTDs are intended to be universal in application, the remainder of the templates are developed to "run" on the JCALS engines. All templates are available for download directly from the WEB page."

Note on MIL-M-28001B from NAVYSGML Site: "MIL-M-28001B is the DoD standard which describes implementation of ISO 8879:1986, Information Processing -- Text and Office Systems -- Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML). Included in MIL-M-28001B is a sample Document Type Definition or DTD. NOTE: The example DTD in MIL-M-8001B is to be used for example purposes only. Also included in Appendix B is the Output Specification. The Output Specification is the DTD developed in accrdance with MIL-M-28001B which is meant to describe style and format. An Formatting Output Specification Instance (FOSI) describes the style and format of a specific class of documents tagged to a specific DTD."

The Army SGML Registry and Library (ASRL) is a site for "the U.S. Army Publications and Printing Command (USAPPC) Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML) Registry and Library (ASRL). The ASRL is part of the Digital Publications Development (DPD) Program, and is the Army operational site for the DOD CALS SGML Registry (CSR) and CALS SGML Library (CSL). The ASRL is the central SGML data repository and single-point source for Army-approved SGML objects and constructs for publications developers. USAPPC is the approving authority for all Army standard SGML objects and constructs."

"The U.S. Army Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML) Registry and Library (ASRL) will contain all Army-approved SGML constructs, such as document type definitions (DTD), formatting output specification instances (FOSI), and SGML tag description lists authorized for use in the preparation of Army publications. All DTDs, FOSIs, and SGML tags shall be officially registered with the ASRL prior to their use for developing any Department of the Army (DA) publication, including administrative, doctrinal and training, technical and equipment publications, and Electronic and Interactive Electronic Technical Manuals (ETM/IETM)." [from the FAQ]

"The Government Information Finder Technology (GIFT) is an infrastructure that delivers a search and retrieval capability to Government data and information in its original format over different government sites and locations."